Gliederung

Objective

The greater risk of falling in the elderly is often explained by age-related decrease of cognitive and physical abilities. Some studies show that this phenomenon is due to inactivity and reduced use of resources than a biological consequence [1]. Based on this idea, the present study investigated the risk of falling of physically active senoirs.

Methods

30 young (M = 25.37; SD = 3.13) and 28 old subjects (M = 65; SD = 3.56) with comparable physical activities took part in the study. Throughout the whole experiment subjects were walking on a treadmill. Walking speed was 1.2 m/sec for the young and 0.8 m/sec for the old.

While walking on a treadmill the subjects had to avoid unexpected obstacles as a single task (O_S) and with a concurrent signal-detection task (O_C). A two factor ANOVA tested, whether the group factor age and the repeated measure factor task had an effect on the number of obstacle contacts.

Results

We found a significant effect for the factor task on the number of obstacle contacts (O_C > O_S; p < .01). It was not possible to show a significant effect for the factor age ( p = .59).

Conclusions

Results indicate, that there is no greater risk of falling for physical active seniors. Hence, it seems advisable to implement physical activities in fall prevention programs.